Like the x-ray photograph of her pelvis and IUD on the album cover, on 2025’s Virgin, Lorde burns through her persona, deconstructing each layer to get the essential core. It’s a dichotomous title for the 28-year-old New Zealand-born artist who’s been a star since emerging at 17 with the literate, preternatural swagger of her breakthrough hit “Royals,” and who’s been through several relationships since; the end of the last one purportedly serving in-part as a catalyst for the raw emotions she explores here. Yet, it’s no mere break-up album and dichotomies, especially the bold contrasts between who she once was and who she has become are manifest throughout Virgin. There’s a feeling that having grown up in the public eye, Lorde is reclaiming her teenage self…